Escape from the Parkway

Bold thinking by a Manitoba truck driver scored her one of the best views in Ottawa.

Kyra & Stephanie, selfie supplied by them

Eight months ago, I told you about Stephanie and Kyra - a mother/daughter team who joined the Freedom Convoy near Winnipeg and drove across the country in a red Western Star. Stephanie described (in installment 4) how she and another bobtail up near the front made their escape from the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway.

Having been directed there by the police on Saturday, January 29th, she found herself parked “behind the Parliament Buildings, by the river.” Evidently, some of the western Convoy trucks got quite close to the downtown core before the roadway was blocked further back with heavy equipment.

After sitting there for a few hours, Stephanie got on the radio with the occupants of another truck, with whom she’d become friends. “I said ‘I didn’t come to Ottawa to stare at the river. I’m going downtown. Are you guys following me, or not?’” She then placed an electronic pin on her mobile phone’s map app and handed the device to 14-year-old Kyra:

I said ‘Get me there.’ So [the other truck] followed us through downtown Ottawa. We did a bunch of zigzags. It’s a lot of one-way streets and you’ve gotta remember…I don’t know the city at all.

Stephanie’s bold spirit and take-charge-attitude scored her one of the best views in Ottawa. She ended up parked for three weeks on Metcalfe Street, mere blocks from Parliament Hill.

Her red truck, flanked by two white ones, was photographed thousands of times during the three-week protest. These trucks are now part of the Freedom Convoy’s iconic imagery.

· Part 1 of the Stephanie/Kyra story: Prairie Protesters

· Part 2: Dear Beautiful Stranger

· Part 3: Mother Daughter Road Trip

· Part 4: I’m at the Front of the Line Here

· Part 5: Roses and Steak Dinner

· Part 6: The Milk Jug Boys

· Part 7: The $10k Coffee Fairy

· Part 8: Leaving Manitoba, Leaving Ottawa